This page is dedicated to helping you stay motivated for the NaNoWriMo novel writing competition period. 30 days - writing each day - these are tips for keeping up the pressure on yourself to complete your writing, and in turn produce a wonderful novel that you can be proud of.
The easiest way to find motivation in any task is to have a very strong sense of why you're putting yourself through hardship in the first place! It's so much easier not to do something, and yet you've chosen to taken on the 30 day writing challenge. Congratulations - that's the first step but there are many more to go.
We would argue that writing a novel is a simple process - what can make it difficult is not understanding what the process is before taking on the task. Each writer will have his/her own way of going about producing their novel (and we're not here to tell you how to do that!) but once broken down into constituent parts it's really not terribly complex.
The difficulty comes from other places and not strictly from the process. You'll find that all of a sudden you'll have difficulty in finding the time to do it. You originally might set yourself the task of writing between, say, 8pm and 9.30pm every day - that leaves you an hour and a half for producing over 1,000 words and you'll easily meet your deadline. But, one day, you won't be able to do it. Perhaps it's a party, after-work socialising, homework, holiday, unexpected broken leg - whatever the reason, you'll break that day's quota.
How many times do problems have to occur before your participation in this project becomes a chore?
Writing a novel isn't easy, even if the process is. Be honest with yourself about what the problems are likely to be ahead of time. That way you can at least try to head them off before they happen.
You need energy to write, but you don't need a harvest. Be sensible with your drinks and snacking, and make sure you're eating well at other times. This may seem a mile away from a motivational tip - but it's very hard to stay focussed without the right chemistry going on inside your body.
Many writers find it highly motivating to use food and drink as rewards for their efforts. How could you use this to your advantage?
Just as above - you can't work if you're exhausted. Make sure you take enough breaks to keep your eyes and mind from wandering excessively. Just like with food, however, you have to make sure that you likewise stay focussed on the task, which leads us to...
Turn off the internet! Seriously - do it now, stop reading this page and turn it off so that the temptation to go and check your email/facebook/twitter/news site -just-one-more-time- stops right now.
The best way to motivate yourself with any task is to imagine how it's going to be when you're done. Feels great, doesn't it? So make sure you get there!